Just had my motor rebuilt for the 2nd time. The 1st guy was a jerk! The motor only lasted 200 miles. This 2nd guy isn't so much a jerk, but he still sucks. As the story goes, the 1st motor fired right up on the 1st try, but failed when some cheap rockers arms came apart and damaged the oiling system. **** ME OFF!

A year and a half goes by, I've finally calmed down enough to rebuild the engine a 2nd time. The friggin thing won't start! I have gone through everything a half dozen times. I went through most of the stuff twice prior to installing it. I gave it good once over after installation but prior to cranking it over. Then came the fateful moment to fire it up and it just spins. No ignition. I go over the ignition system. I check the coil, the ignition module, the signals to the module. I check my plugs, cables, and grounds. I pull out my BRAND NEW distributor and verify that it is on the cam correctly. I add new grounds. I check the fuel pressure, the injectors, the wiring. Everything tests out fine. I replace the knock sensor and the distributor harness. I then replace the gas, fuel filter, iginition module, cables, and plugs. The items I replaced were only questionable because they had sat for a year and a half. I CAN'T GET THIS POS TO FIRE!!!!

So, I'm thinking the machinist, which I'm guessing is synonymous with A*HOLE, screwed something up! I'm going to perform a compression check today. Are there any other things I should be checking out before I turn this car into a bomb and PUSH it through this guy's shop?

My car is a 97 Camaro Z28 convertible 6 speed. 160k miles on GM engine. 200 miles on Bearing Service engine. 0 miles on Maslen Machine engine.

 

compression, fuel and fire is what it takes to run. Do you know that your plug wires are firing to the plugs? I'm no ace mechanic so I was just asking the obvious. Getting fuel? fire? It should be easy to test those 2 things. Is the timing right? Any fuses blown? Good luck man.

 

I have seen the spark, but I'm not sure if it's happening at the right time. I pulled the plug off of Cylinder 1 and it seemed to fire after TDC, but it's really hard to tell accurately so I figured it was close enough. Fuel pressure is 45 psi at the rails, I have tested each injector and they all appear to be working. They are getting a signal from the ECM.

My initial thought on my problem was bad timing. But this optispark isn't like my old HEI, where you could rotate the distributor until it started running. I don't know of any way to adj the timing. What's the function of the Crankshaft Position Sensor? All of the fuses are ok.

 

its not the machinists fault at this point. if everything is connected correctly, like you said, and you're getting fuel and spark, then the car should turn over. that's when you'd find out if the machinist did something wrong. even if you had the distributor on incorrectly, the car would still fire, just run crappy.

how "new" is this brand new distributor? what brand is it? there's no simple way to test these distributors, but if you have spark everywhere else then your distributor could be shot.

 

just read your last post...the CPS is very important. tells which cylinders to fire. that could also be your problem at this point. i'd sure as hell be pointing my finger at that before i manned up and paid for a new opti

 

The crank sensor tells it when to fire. I havent ever had to change one. I dont even know if the LT1 has one. I guess it does. I'm not a mechanic but i work on my own. Maybe your fire is too weak and like whammer said how "new" is the opti. It may be weak.

 

The opti is brand new. I was going to put my old one back in, but decided not to even mess with it and replaced it. So, 0 miles.

I thought the CPS was just a sensor. I'm sure I have mine "tuned" out at the moment. I have read about people removing the sensor when going to a double roller. I still have a single roller and kept the CPS. But, I'm almost positive the 1st time I had this running the tuner had tuned out the emissions, cps, and rear 02 sensors.

 

tuned out the CPS? that's a new one...i guess it possible someone did that but i've never heard of it. you sure you're not thinking about desensitizing the knock sensor?

 

No. I put in an LT4 module for the knock sensor as I do have roller rockers. I'll call up the tuner and ask him. I haven't talked to him since the 1st rebuild went sour as he was buddy buddy with the machinist that failed me. Yes, I blame the machinist because he put in some friggin blue rocker arms when I had specifically asked for the Pro Mags from comp cams. He charged me the price of the comp cams, but these things were cheap as hell. And of course, part failures aren't his concern. But, hey, I'm over that now...

 

i'm telling you that with the issues you're describing now, its not on the machinist at this point. car has to fire to be able to tell if he did something wrong. unless of course he completely spaced off putting a crankshaft in it, lol.

why don't you tell us more about this build...maybe that will help us diagnose some more possible issues